Problems with the Panopticon: UK CCTVs don’t cut crime rates

The UK relies on closed-circuit television cameras for crime prevention more …

Despite being a modern liberal democracy, the UK seems to be in the thrall of the kinds of state surveillance that wouldn't go amiss in Judge Dredd's Mega City One. DNA databases, proposed ID cards, and most notably the widespread adoption of closed-circuit television (CCTV) are all tools that have or are being employed by the UK government as anti-crime measures. But new statistics show that this reliance on remote surveillance of the population has had an insignificant effect on crime prevention.

The prevalence of CCTV coverage is such that in London, one is captured on camera roughly every six seconds. The Labour Government has plans to implement an automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) system that would be able to track a vehicle's journey across the country, and millions are spent on facial software recognition systems that have yet to be shown to have any merit.

Although the UK doesn't suffer from a particularly high rate of crime, the usual culprits (ratings-hungry media and election-pandering politicians) repeatedly air concerns about rents in the social fabric of the nation, and centuries of libertarian tradition repeatedly fall under attack by those who believe that a 21st-century Panopticon is the only possible solution.

But according to Detective Chief Inspector Mick Neville, who heads the Metropolitan Police's Met's Visual Images, Identifications and Detections Office (Viido), billions of pounds have been spent with almost no results to show. Only three percent of crimes have been solved using CCTV footage, and offenders aren't afraid of being caught on video. Det. Chief Inspector Neville, speaking to The Guardian, described the system as an "utter fiasco" and that "no thought" had gone into implementation.

Other issues, beyond the lack of success standing up in court, include the tedium of police officers spending hours trawling through footage, and often a failure to contact private CCTV operators (such as cameras located on private buildings etc) to request footage. The ineffectiveness of the UK's CCTV system has actually been known for a while; less than a year ago, we covered the UK Home Office's own findings that CCTV had only reduced crime by four percent.

Viido has plans to make better use of CCTV cameras, including an image database of offenders coupled with written descriptions, software that can pick out distinctive logos, and posting images of suspects on the Internet.

Meanwhile, if you happen to live in the UK and want to know what cameras have your image, the Data Protection Act gives you the right to be given copies of all tapes you have featured in. Agitprop comedian Mark Thomas made excellent use of this aspect of the DPA to solicit members of the public to use CCTV to record street performances back in 1999. Given the current political climate though, I wouldn't expect the cameras to go anywhere anytime soon.